The speed of consumer broadband Internet access can vary. In many instances, quoted download speeds are maximum rates that are not guaranteed. Furthermore, download speeds are generally not guaranteed to be sustainable for a certain duration of time. The delivery of quality video assets over a data communication network, such as the Internet, is hindered by: 1) the wide variation in consumer broadband Internet access speeds; 2) the capabilities of end user devices; and 3) the axiom that the advertised download rates are not guaranteed to be sustainable at a consistent or known rate. These limitations have forced producers of online video content to produce a given video asset at a number of data rates (also referred to as bit rates or encoding rates) that can be offered as alternatives to consumers. Hence, providing quality video transmissions in a network environment presents a significant challenge to component manufacturers, system architects, and service providers, alike.